Alyssa McFarland's Internet HQ

Fake Ads

Fake Ads are created by snipping marketing slogans and other nonsense from real ads and pasting them together in a non sequitur manner to enhance their ridiculousness. Mail order catalogs like the ones that Carol Wright Gifts used to put out are perfect for this. If you skip down to the bottom of this page you’ll see an example, from a cluster of never-before-published ads that I did for Jittering Microscope #7 but never included. I quickly learned that it was easier to type these things into a computer rather than paste them. They look better that way, too.

I recommend you click these a couple of times to make them larger and read at least an entire page or two or three before you dismiss them as stupid. Because once you “get it,” you will likely find them extremely funny. And some of my personal favorites are from Jittering Microscope #2.

From Jittering Microscope #1

Oh and that picture above is an actual mannequin from the Newark, DE Goodwill back in 1990 or so.

From Jittering Microscope #1

from Jittering Microscope #1

From Jittering Microscope #2

From Jittering Microscope #2

From Jittering Microscope #2

From Jittering Microscope #3

From Jittering Microscope #3

From Jittering Microscope #4

From Jittering Microscope #4

From Jittering Microscope #5

From Jittering Microscope #6

From Jittering Microscope #6

Ah this one above includes a humor piece where one of my co-workers was teasing another for going to a tanning salon.

From Jittering Microscope #7

For more information about my old zine Jittering Microscope visit this history page.